LAS VEGAS -- The Chicago Bulls have agreed to terms with guard Kirk Hinrich, according to league sources. Hinrich, who has spent nine of his 11 NBA seasons with the Bulls, averaged 9.1 points and 3.9 assists in 73 games last season. He is a favorite of management and coach Tom Thibodeau. The Bulls view him as an ideal complement for Derrick Rose because he can take defensive and ball-handling responsibilites off Rose's plate. Both the Bulls and Hinrich stated his return to Chicago...

LAS VEGAS - The 2014-15 Bulls are taking shape. They're just not making it official yet. League sources said Kirk Hinrich will follow Pau Gasol and officially sign in the coming days. Nikola Mirotic tweeted that he will “fulfill a dream” and leave Real Madrid for the Bulls. But as backup center Greg Smith's imminent trade to the Mavericks indicates, the Bulls' financial picture is fluid. The deadline to use the amnesty provision on Carlos Boozer is Wednesday. The Bulls...

LOS ANGELES - For 8 minutes, 8 seconds, Kirk Hinrich really had it rolling Thursday night in Oakland. The veteran guard kick-started the Bulls to a 15-point, first-quarter lead in an eventual loss to the Warriors by hitting his first four shots, including a 3-pointer. He added two steals and an assist and generally played as if his pants were on fire. Then the extinguisher came. Hinrich sat, replaced by D.J. Augustin. And the bench is where Hinrich remained until the 2:53...

LAS VEGAS -- The Chicago Bulls have agreed to terms with guard Kirk Hinrich, according to league sources. Hinrich, who has spent nine of his 11 NBA seasons with the Bulls, averaged 9.1 points and 3.9 assists in 73 games last season. He is a favorite of management and coach Tom Thibodeau. The Bulls view him as an ideal complement for Derrick Rose because he can take defensive and ball-handling responsibilites off Rose's plate. Both the Bulls and Hinrich stated his return to Chicago...

Bulls management likes D.J. Augustin . It also likes Kirk Hinrich . Both will be unrestricted free agents in July. It's anybody's guess how the market plays out and who returns as Derrick Rose's backup. "It could be that we have just a little bit of (financial) flexibility, but there are different scenarios where we could have a lot of flexibility," general manager Gar Forman said Wednesday. "I wouldn't want to completely rule out (signing both). " That's...

Joakim Noah, the NBA's reigning Defensive Player of the Year, was the leading vote-getter in All-Defensive teams announced Monday by the NBA. In balloting by 123 writers and broadcasters, Noah drew a league-high 105 first-team votes to headline a team that also featured the Clippers' Chris Paul, the Pacers' Paul George, the Thunder's Serge Ibaka and the Warriors' Andre Iguodala, who played for Lanphier High School in Springfield, Ill. It's...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - After two games as a reserve, Kirk Hinrich returned to the starting lineup but remained on a minutes restriction as he works his way back from an injured right hamstring. Barring a setback, the minutes restriction will change. Consistently playing less than D.J. Augustin will not. "I'm fine with either role," Hinrich said. Indeed, this wouldn't be a demotion as much as preservation. "Hopefully he can get back to his 25-30 minutes. That's...

Bulls management likes D.J. Augustin . It also likes Kirk Hinrich . Both will be unrestricted free agents in July. It's anybody's guess how the market plays out and who returns as Derrick Rose's backup. "It could be that we have just a little bit of (financial) flexibility, but there are different scenarios where we could have a lot of flexibility," general manager Gar Forman said Wednesday. "I wouldn't want to completely rule out (signing both). " That's...

Over the four-day All-Star break, Kirk Hinrich worked out at the Berto Center once. His 3-point shot appreciated the rest. Before the break, Hinrich expressed strong disappointment in his shooting, particularly his 28.8 percent from 3-point range. In the four post-All-Star-games before Wednesday, Hinrich had made 7 of 12 from beyond the arc to push his percentage to 31.5. That's still well below his career mark of 37.6 but is on an upward trend. Hinrich was 0-for-2 on...

WASHINGTON - In a season where overcoming odds has been the norm, the Bulls' trademark defiance ceded to disappointment Sunday afternoon. "It's very disappointing to get in a hole like that," coach Tom Thibodeau said. Playing without the suspended Nene, the Wizards scored Game 4's first 14 points, led by as many as 23, withstood every charge and walked off the Verizon Center court amid strewn confetti with a 98-89 victory. "It's really disappointing," Joakim Noah said. If...

ATLANTA - On March 28, 2012, Kirk Hinrich , then with the Hawks, told the Tribune he would consider re-signing with the Bulls when he entered unrestricted free agency for the first time in his NBA career a few months later. Wednesday morning, almost two years to that day, Hinrich expressed a similar sentiment. “I like it here,” Hinrich said of his Bulls' situation. “Obviously, returning home was a big factor in why I came back. I would like to stay here. But I...

All season, the Bulls have talked about how fourth quarters require a different level of intensity. Through two games of their first-round series against the Wizards, the Bulls have failed to reach it. "The fourth quarter is where we normally get excited, and they've just been taking advantage of us," Taj Gibson said. The Bulls have shot 35.3 percent with eight turnovers and have been outscored 51-34 in the fourth quarters. More dramatically, they have been outscored...

ATLANTA - In the early going Tuesday night, the Bulls looked lost. Perhaps their minds were still in Miami, where the Heat drubbed them Sunday. They fell behind by 14 points to an injury-depleted Hawks team whose starting big men were the ancient Elton Brand and the 6-foot-8 DeMarre Carroll. Kyle Korver drained two 3-pointers in the game's first 50 seconds. "We were slow," coach Tom Thibodeau said. But then the Bulls turned it on, took a second-quarter lead and...

With the game and perhaps the Bulls' season on the line against the Wizards on Tuesday night at the United Center, guard Kirk Hinrich took the ball to the basket on the final possession of a 101-99 overtime loss. That alone summed up the biggest problem this Bulls team cannot overcome. The most qualified player to take a big shot in the playoffs to bring the Bulls closer to a championship is either wearing a suit on the bench or beginning his offseason in New York. But without...

INDIANAPOLIS - After the last game before the All-Star break, a peeved Kirk Hinrich vowed to improve his anemic 3-point percentage. Loss or no loss Friday night, mission accomplished. After splitting his two attempts in the 91-79 setback against the Pacers, Hinrich is shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc (28-for-56) since the break. That has lifted his season percentage to 34.9, which still falls below his career mark of 37.7. "I've been a little bit streaky," Hinrich...

Losing the first two home games of a best-of-seven series is tough enough. Blowing double-digit, second-half leads in both is even more demoralizing. "Demoralizing?" Joakim Noah said. Then, in the direct aftermath of Tuesday's shocking 101-99 overtime loss to the Wizards, he thought of a different word. "It sucks," Noah said. "I hate losing. Everyone on this team is giving everything that they have. I feel like they hit big shot after big shot. You have to give...

In one breath, Kirk Hinrich said he has "made significant progress" with the right hamstring injury that sidelined him for the fourth straight game Monday. In the next, Hinrich admitted he might not return Wednesday, when the Bulls begin a six-game trip in San Antonio. "I'm not going to take anything off the table, but my plan is to be cautious because it's something I've had in the past," Hinrich said. "I'm hoping to not have anything linger and hopefully be...

When Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich and Wizards counterpart Andre Miller chit-chat at the foul line, they don't ask about area restaurants or each other's families. "How old are you? How much longer are you going to play?" Miller said of the typical conversation, which ends with "Stay healthy and keep pushing. " Miller is a 15-year NBA veteran who turned 38 in March. He has been around so long, he played with Benoit Benjamin. Let's amend that: He has been around so long, he forgot he...

Forget Derrick Rose or Ben Gordon. As far as some Celtics are concerned, Kirk Hinrich has come from nowhere -- OK, the bench -- to have the biggest target on his back. "We first have to stop Kirk Hinrich," Celtics center Kendrick Perkins said. "He just can't keep coming in and hurting us and giving them a spark. We shut Kirk Hinrich down and we can close out the series." Vinny Del Negro admitted Hinrich would have played more than 31 minutes in Game 5 if he hadn't...

Mike Dunleavy possesses a dry, sarcastic sense of humor and downplays most individual accomplishments. But playing all 82 games, as Dunleavy did for the fourth time in his 12-year career and first since 2007-08, is something of which the 33-year-old Bulls veteran is quite proud. "Absolutely, especially with the minutes I played," Dunleavy said. "It's always a goal of mine at the beginning of each season to set out to play every game. That's what you're paid to do. To be...